Helle's Belles
by The.Lost.Thoughts
Summary: Hatter and Belle in the psych ward. Belle comforts him. Implied Rumbelle. Helle friendship.


Rose crept slowly to the door as the attending nurses ran past her room to restrain the raging patient down the hall.

"Ellie," she whispered as a pair of heels hurried closer and finally stepped into her line of sight. The nurse stopped cold at Rose's voice, the syringe in her hand held aloft.

She hadn't been working at the hospital long, but Rose liked her. She was quiet, but there was on odd kind of strength to her that Rose knew she had even though she hadn't seen it yet.

"What's happening?" Eliza glanced nervously down the hall and licked at her lips, avoiding Rose's eyes. "Is it Andrew again?" she prodded.

"Yes," Eliza said quietly. "He's shouting about Alice again. The attendants had to restrain him. I'm-" She bit off the end of the sentence and looked guiltily at the syringe.

"Oh please," Rose pleaded. "You know it'll only make him worse in the end. He hates it when you sedate him." And so did she. Sometimes it was blissful to be incoherent, but she hated the groggy feeling it left her with.

Eliza knew Rose was right. Once the sedative wore off it would be days before he settled down. Andrew would pace and mutter to himself day and night before finally slipping into a quiet kind of catatonic state until something made him snapped and he started ranting again. It was a vicious, if not predictable, cycle.

"Let me talk to him," Rose said softly.

"I-I can't."

"Please." Rose pressed her hands against the door. "I think I can help."

"But if the mayor-" One of the nurses down the hall shouted for Eliza, cutting her off.

"Please…" Rose saw the moment she caved and stepped away from the door as Eliza pushed it open, staring at her with troubled eyes. "I won't tell her," Rose promised. "Besides," she gave a twisted, sad kind of smile. "I'm crazy remember?"

Eliza smiled weakly and led Rose out into the hall.

Together they peeked into Andrew's cell just as he threw one of the attendants across the room.

"Come on Andrew," Eliza said, trying to calm him down but he bared his teeth at her and snarled as the attendants leapt at him again. Eliza glanced at Rose and put a hand on her arm.

"This was a bad idea," she muttered to Rose, trying to usher her away, but Rose stepped boldly around her, locking eyes with Andrew.

"Hatter."

The reaction was instantaneous. He froze in place, the attendants still tugging at him, but he stood firmly in the center of the cell as if made of iron. Tension and power rippled off him, raw and real and dangerous. The moment fizzled as quickly as it came as he was finally wrestled to the ground by the nurses and the struggle began anew.

"No!" Rose made to help him before someone finally drew blood, but Eliza beat her to it.

"Stop it, all of you," she snapped with enough force to surprise even Rose. "Let him alone." Eliza glared when the nurses ignore her, still trying to hold Andrew still long enough to drug him.

Eliza took a threatening step forward, her hands on her hips. "I said, stop it. Let him up." Something in her voice made the two attendants still. Slowly they released Andrew and stood, backing away from Andrew who snapped some kind of nonsense at them while straightening his shirt.

Rose wondered if this was how Eliza had learned to be heard. She'd once told Rose that she was the youngest of twelve, all boys save for her. Rose couldn't imagine being a part of a family that large. She wondered where Eliza's confidence had been all this time. She could be quite commanding when she wanted to.

"Don't make drug the two of you and lock you away," she threatened.

"You wouldn't dare," one of the nurses snapped, towering over her, but Eliza didn't back down.

"Watch me. I could have the two of you committed and no one would argue. All I have to do is say the strain of working here was too much for you and you snapped." She glared between the both of them, grey eyes as cold as iron. "No one would question me," she whispered. "Now get out."

The two nurses glanced between each other before edging out of the room, leaving Rose and Eliza in the cell with Andrew. They made to take Rose back to her cell, but a look from Eliza stopped them.

"Leave her to me." Both men pursed their lips, but did as she said.

When they were gone all her bravado crumpled like a falling tower and she curled in on herself, panting like she'd just run a marathon.

Rose touched her arm softly, afraid a simple touch would be enough to break her completely. "That was very brave."

Eliza smiled faintly. "Yes, well; just be quick. I'll be right outside if you need anything." She cast a nervous glance at Andrew, but said nothing.

Rose nodded as Eliza shut the door leaving Rose and Andrew alone. She turned to him, but he'd skittered back to his bed, muttering through his teeth.

"Hatter?" she called, trying to capture his attention again.

His eyes found hers though the dark and he fell silent. "Alice?"

Rose stepped carefully towards him, lowering herself onto the bed beside him. She held herself still as he reached for her, running trembling fingers along her cheek, leaning closer to her. "Are you really here mutton?"

Belle smiled softly but Andrew recoiled. "No, not here," he snapped to himself. "Jabberwocky, off with her head, clean cup, clean cup everybody move down."

Rose touched his hand and he looked up with broken eyes. "My name is Belle," she said softly, lowering her voice in the hopes Eliza wouldn't hear.

"I thought it was Rose," he muttered distantly.

"That's what they tell me it is." Belle shrugged. "But I know better."

Hatter's eyes searched her face. "What am I doing here?"

"What do you remember?"

Hatter clutched at his head until Belle was certain he'd tear his scalp free. "I try not to mutton." He peered up at her with beady eyes and she wondered just what horrors he had seen with a gaze that old. Belle had long ago learned to spot a desperate soul, and he was if she'd ever seen one. Belle squeezed his arm as he buried his face in a tangle of arms and legs.

"I woke up one day, or maybe it was night, and suddenly Wonderland had gone to hell."

"That was the curse," Belle said. "The Queen cast it and sent us here. Where were you before?"

Hatter's lips pulled tightly across his teeth. "Alice and I were captured by the Red Queen. Put us in the dungeon." He ground his teeth, fighting back a mess of bloody memories. "I remember screaming when she had her executed in front of me." Belle's throat closed with tears as she watched him tell his story.

"Alice?"

"I couldn't save her," he growled in a voice as old as time itself, tears burning down his cheeks. "Cut off her head in front of my cell. So much blood, blood everywhere," he raged. He scrambled for breath, continuing when he was a little calmer. "She was just out of reach the whole time and I couldn't save her. I couldn't save her!"

Hatter clawed at his face as he shouted and Belle tore his hands free, wrapping him in her arms and holding him so tightly she was afraid he'd break, but maybe she was the only thing holding him together.

She could feel his nails tear at her back through the thin fabric of her shirt, but she didn't care. She knew what that kind of pain felt like and she knew there was no filling the gaping hole it left in your chest to lose someone you loved.

Belle held him as he wept, placing herself between him and the nightmares for as long as she could, protecting him for just a little while. She couldn't help herself, but maybe she could help him.

Hatter stumbled briefly on a sob but forced himself to continue. "The Queen left her body there in the dungeon, a handful of paces from me to putrefy and rot until there was nothing left but bones for the rats to chew on." He choked on the words and the rage in his heart. His grip on Belle suddenly went slack and he pulled away. "And then I wake up wandering in the forest."

Belle knew he must have been out of his mind with agony when the curse hit and wondered just how broken his encounter with this Wonderland Queen had left him. "Some Jabberwok in a badge locked me away in some cage and then took me to this one."

"I know the feeling," Belle whispered. "And I know the pain." She brushed his tears away with her hand. "But hold onto that pain. The pain is real." She grasped his hands and held him tight. "The pain and the memories are real, even when they tell you they aren't. Hold on to those no matter what because in this place that's all you have to keep you sane."

Hatter laughed, a thick and broken sound. "Oh mutton, haven't you heard? I'm all ready mad."

Belle gave him a sad smile, tears in her eyes at the sound of their combined brokenness. "We're all mad here."


End file.
